100 Things Michigan State Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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100 Things Michigan State Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633196414 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 10/15/2016 |
| Series: | 100 Things...Fans Should Know Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| File size: | 9 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
100 Things Michigan State Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
By Michael Emmerich
Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2016 Michael EmmerichAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-641-4
CHAPTER 1
Magic
Earvin Johnson called a press conference to announce his college choice. Today every high school player with a decent jump shot and 40-inch vertical leap does that. In 1977, however, such grand gestures were reserved for the truly grand. Looking back, though, maybe Johnson should have announced his choice of college on the top of the Lansing state capitol building. That would have better symbolized his standing in the history of Michigan State sports.
The first thing to know about Johnson: His contributions cannot be described by scanning the stat sheets. Johnson's name is mostly absent among the all-time record holders at Michigan State. The second thing: He is the single greatest athlete to ever wear a Michigan State jersey.
And he almost said no to the Green and White, his boyhood favorite. Johnson starred at Lansing Everett High School, and the chatter about him started his freshman year and only grew exponentially as he matured. After a 36-point, 18-rebound performance during his sophomore year against favored Jackson Parkside, Johnson earned a new moniker — "Magic." The nickname given to him by local media personality Fred Stabley Jr. stuck because the skills Johnson exhibited on the basketball court defied a better description. He could handle the ball as well as or better than any guard. He commanded the floor, directing, cajoling, and encouraging his teammates and demoralizing his opponents with game-changing assists, scores, steals, and rebounds. As a passer he had few equals, possessing a preternatural vision of the court that enabled him to make the impossible pass possible. (MSU coach Jud Heathcote said he played as though he had a "big eye in the back of his head.") Magic could also shoot and finish with either hand, once dominating an AAU game with his left hand because of an injury to the middle fingers of his dominant right hand. But what really caused scouts and basketball junkies to salivate, besides the delicious package of skills, was Johnson's size. He stood 6'9". No frame of reference existed for a kid like Johnson. The combination of skills and size was unprecedented. It was in a word — magical.
Magic won a state title at Everett, and Michigan State recruited him hard. So did Michigan and every other major college. At the end, though, it came down to MSU and UM, which at the time owned infinitely more cachet. Johnson appeared to be leaning toward the Spartans until MSU fired its coach, Gus Ganakas. Magic adored Ganakas and had deep reservations about his replacement, Jud Heathcote. "I didn't really know him," Johnson wrote in his autobiography. "I saw the way he yelled at his players and I didn't like it." Despite having recently accepted the head coaching position at Wayne State, former MSU assistant Vernon Payne persuaded Johnson that underneath Heathcote's rough exterior resided a "terrific coach and excellent teacher."
A week before Johnson's decision, Jay Vincent, Magic's prep school rival and a blue chipper himself, committed to MSU. Johnson mulled over his decision, weighing the numerous plusses of Michigan against the strong tug of his childhood favorite. At his press conference, he started by asking the throng of reporters — some from as far away as New York — if they had any questions. Then he blurted out that he had decided to attend Michigan. He paused just briefly — long enough for MSU fans to gulp hard — then finished his sentence with "State." "The Wolverines were on national TV and this and that," he said. "But I like the underdog school."
Magic helped turn the tables, and UM receded into the background while MSU bolted into the headlines. It had been more than a decade since Michigan State had upstaged the Wolverines in anything. Now all the talk among Michigan sports fans, especially starting in January, listed in the direction of Earvin Johnson and his MSU Spartans.
Johnson's debut against Central Michigan underwhelmed. Perhaps succumbing to nerves for the only time in his collegiate career, Magic scored just eight points and committed eight turnovers to offset his eight assists. The Spartans survived thanks to fellow freshman Vincent, who came off the bench to score 25 points in 24 minutes. Magic wiped away all doubts in the next two games at the Carrier Classic in Syracuse, New York. He performed so spectacularly that the tournament named him MVP, even though the Spartans had lost to the host team of Syracuse, one of only three games the Spartans would lose to non-conference foes in Johnson's two seasons.
Like a frozen turkey thawing in the refrigerator, Johnson's doubts about Heathcote started slowly melting. Magic discovered his coach shared his fierce competitiveness and almost pathological disgust of losing. But Johnson was used to being the alpha male. So was Heathcote. Clashes were inevitable — but surprisingly infrequent.
They understood each other, knew when to push and when to back off. Once when Johnson committed a few turnovers, Heathcote pulled him from the game. "I didn't come here to sit," Johnson snorted in the direction of his coach. If another player had complained in a similar fashion, Heathcote would have responded sharply, probably apocalyptically. He said nothing to Johnson, who checked back in a minute later. "Earvin and I have strong personalities," wrote Heathcote in his autobiography, Jud. "But I think we made a great combination because we both wanted the same thing."
Magic transformed the entire MSU program. No one worked harder than Johnson in practice. No one desired to win more. No one cared less about personal stats and individual glory. "In those days, they'd bring the stat sheets in right after the game," Heathcote said. "And Earvin wouldn't even look at them. He'd say, 'I'll look at it in the morning. We won the game. That's all that counts.'"
What counted for Magic was involving his teammates, which in turn meant the team succeeded. He made them look good and made them better. They found gears they didn't know they had, skills that had been dormant. "Earvin made things easier for everybody he played with," Greg Kelser said.
Johnson acted as a surrogate coach. He guided, directed, scolded, and praised his teammates. And they responded with an eagerness to please instead of scorn. "He had a way of telling other players what to do and having them accept it," Heathcoate said. "And if he had the ball on the break and didn't hit you, he'd always give you a wink or a nod and say he'd get you the next time. It made you run just a little harder."
Fans marveled at Johnson's rare talent. His repertoire included no-look passes, supernal court vision, timely scoring, and rainbow lobs for alley-oop dunks, which were usually triggered by a nod of his head to Ron Charles, Kelser, or Vincent. But anyone who saw him play remembers something else. Johnson loved the game of basketball. He didn't let the inevitable troughs and frustrations of the game keep him down for long. And his smile, which grew to match his size-14 shoe after big plays, and enthusiasm infected his teammates and the spectators who watched him. "He was the Pied Piper of college basketball," broadcaster Dick Enberg said. As the Spartans rose to prominence, Johnson embraced the attention. The press sought him out, and he complied with cheerful and entertaining interviews that only further burnished his reputation.
Throughout his college career, a cadre of scouts questioned whether he had the athletic ability — vertical leaping was not his forte — and shooting touch to be a superstar as a professional. At MSU Johnson scored in a variety of ways. Because he usually had the ball in his hands and pushed it relentlessly, he got to the free throw line often. He still holds the MSU single-season record for free throws made and attempted and shot 81.6 percent at the line for his career, seventh best in school history. His shot, however, fell far short of textbook. He cradled the ball as if he were about to shot put it, and his jump shot had very little jump in it. Few complained though. Awkward looking as the shot may have been, it usually found its target.
Magic's collegiate career ended after his sophomore year in the 1979 NCAA championship game where he met Larry Bird for the very first time. The Spartans beat Bird's Indiana State Sycamores 75–64 to earn Michigan State's first national championship in basketball. That hatched a rivalry that would dominate the NBA during the league's golden era of the 1980s. Magic's NBA career ended temporarily in 1991 after he contracted HIV though he returned later to win the MVP of the All-Star Game in 1992. Currently Johnson is co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since his retirement from basketball, he also has owned and operated a number of successful businesses, and many serve underrepresented populations of Los Angeles.
"He was the greatest passer in basketball history and arguably the greatest player," Heathcote wrote. "Earvin did what only a few have ever been able to do: Make everyone else on his team play better than they actually were."
CHAPTER 2Tom Izzo
Born in the Upper Peninsula mining town of Iron Mountain, Michigan, to a family of self-made men and women, Tom Izzo inherited the can-do gene from his ancestors. He played high school football and basketball at Iron Mountain where he missed a free throw with :02 left in the regional finals to send his school packing. Unrecruited and unappreciated, he walked on at Northern Michigan University, roomed with his high school friend Steve Mariucci, and became a third-team Division III All-American in basketball. He coached at Ishpeming High School, then as an assistant for his alma mater, and finally — for a pay cut — as the third assistant for Jud Heathcote at MSU in 1983. Other than a brief stop at Tulsa, he has been at Michigan State ever since.
He worked his way up the chain as an assistant, establishing himself as a bulldog recruiter and sounding board for victims of Heathcote's tirades. Heathcote retired in 1995 with a national championship among his many credits. Upon his departure he insisted MSU replace him with Izzo. Two years plus into Izzo's head coaching tenure Heathcote's advocacy of his top assistant appeared more like cronyism than genius. The Spartans came up empty in their pursuit of an NCAA tournament bid in Izzo's first two years. Then came a loss to mid-major Detroit in December of 1997 that lit up talk radio with calls for Izzo's dismissal. Two weeks later, the Spartans ventured into West Lafayette, Indiana, as a heavy underdog to meet conference favorite Purdue. They departed with a convincing victory that changed the program — forever. Now 16 years later, everyone thanks Heathcote for what many believe is the greatest gift the university has ever received.
Izzo belongs in consideration as the greatest college basketball coach of all time. Other coaches have won more games, conference championships, and national championships. Today's college game, however, is about getting into the tournament and doing well when you get there. It's how the general public remembers — and judges — the sport. And few, if any, can compete with the quality of Izzo's NCAA overall tournament resume.
Only three coaches have made more consecutive tournament appearances than Izzo (Mike Krzyzweski, Lute Olson, and Dean Smith), demonstrating that Izzo has avoided the dips that bedevil most programs. Only seven coaches (minimum 20 games) have a better overall tournament winning percentage (Wooden, Roy Williams, Coach K, Larry Brown, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, and Billy Donovan), suggesting that Izzo knows something about the secret sauce of avoiding upsets and advancing. Finally, only four coaches have more Final Fours to their credit (Wooden, Coach K, Williams, and Smith). One is tied with Izzo at seven (Pitino).
Izzo gets into the tournament almost without fail — regardless of circumstances. He wins consistently, losing only five times to a lower seed (and one of those occurred in the Final Four) and he advances to the promised land at a remarkably high rate. (Only John Wooden has a higher percentage of years coaching to Final Four appearances.)
Now let's consider context. The coaches listed above won at the following schools: UCLA (Wooden), North Carolina (Smith, Williams), Kentucky (Rupp, Pitino, Calipari), Kansas (Brown, Williams), Duke (Coach K), Louisville (Crum, Pitino), Arizona (Olson), and Florida (Donovan). One doesn't have to stretch credulity to argue that all of these schools enjoy natural advantages over Michigan State. Five of the eight schools emphasize basketball, pouring considerable resources, time, and treasure into the sport. Football is an afterthought, forever competing for the leftover scraps. Basketball tradition stretches back through multiple generations, and fan support borders on the intense, if not insane. Of the three remaining schools, Florida and Arizona enjoy status as the flagship university in their states, which usually results in a resource advantage. It's also relevant to note that Olson and Donovan each appear only once on the above lists. As for UCLA, well, for years California has beckoned young men seeking a better life.
As for MSU, it is a football school in a state that prefers the gridiron to the hardwood. It had very little basketball tradition before the 1970s. It is not the flagship school in its home state, competing endlessly for attention and respect among the in-state media and its own residents. Its chief rival, Michigan, is a behemoth in college sports, and at the time of Izzo's hire, this behemoth's basketball program was a cultural phenomenon, devouring nearly every inch and second of basketball coverage in the state. Where does Izzo measure up now? The only other coach, other than Izzo, who appears on all three lists (consecutive tournament appearances, winning percentage, and Final Fours) is Krzyzweski. Coach K, who has coached 20 more years than Izzo, and Wooden, who won multiple national championships, probably top Izzo for college coaching Zeus. But if you consider the context of Izzo's accomplishments, does that change the calculus at all for you? Does that narrow an already thin gap? It's something to think about for sure.
Izzo's Impressive Resume
The following numbers are a few thoughts to consider about the incomparable Tom Izzo, the greatest ambassador for Michigan State University in at least a half a century:
• Seven Big Ten championships
• 246 — 111 Big Ten record
• No finishes in the conference below .500
• 19 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances
• 13 Sweet 16s
• Nine Elite Eights
• Seven Final Fours
• Two Finals appearances
• One National Championship
• 524—205 overall record
CHAPTER 3Biggie Munn
Clarence "Biggie" Munn, named the head coach of Michigan State on December 14, 1946, took a moderately successful program eternally overshadowed by its in-state rival and accomplished what only the most blinkered Spartans fan could imagine: dominance over Michigan and the rest of college football.
Munn was an All-American at Minnesota in track and football, playing for the legendary Fritz Crisler. In 1931 he was named the Big Ten MVP as a lineman. He eventually went into coaching, following Crisler to Michigan in 1938 where he would serve as a key assistant. They were wildly successful there, restoring dominance over the Spartans, who had beaten them four straight times, and rebuilding the Wolverines into a national power once again. Eight years later, Munn, who enjoyed a cordial but hardly warm relationship with Crisler, left to assume head coaching duties at Syracuse. Meanwhile, John Hannah, president of Michigan State College (MSC) since 1941, had a grand vision of where he wanted to take his school. Football was a key part of it. Losing to Michigan was not. That drove Hannah to Munn, who had built a strong program at Syracuse, knew the landscape of the Midwest, and owned valuable intelligence on arch foe Michigan.
Munn's first order of business: restore the green and white colors to the Spartans uniform, which had been changed to black and gold under Charlie Bachman. His second: reshape the offense.
Biggie developed the Michigan State Multiple, an offense based on speed and deception. It usually started with the backs in a T formation, but just before the snap, they would shift into a variety of different formations, depending on the alignment of the defense, the down and distance, etc. The offense could attack one area of the defensive line from 14 different offensive variations. "I don't see how a college team can be taught so much offense. Even the pros don't do it," wrote a reporter in Portland, Oregon, after watching Munn's offense in action.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 100 Things Michigan State Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Michael Emmerich. Copyright © 2016 Michael Emmerich. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments,1. Magic,
2. Tom Izzo,
3. Biggie Munn,
4. The Game of the Century,
5. A Magical Championship,
6. Duffy Daugherty,
7. One Shining Moment,
8. The Spartan Marching Band,
9. 1952: Champions at Last,
10. 2013 Football Regular Season,
11. 2013 Big Ten Championship and 2014 Rose Bowl,
12. Mateen Cleaves,
13. Mark Dantonio,
14. The 1954 Rose Bowl,
15. George Webster,
16. Rose Bowl Immortality,
17. Kill, Bubba, Kill,
18. 2009 Final Four,
19. Gang Green and the 1988 Rose Bowl,
20. Izzo's First Final Four,
21. Don Coleman,
22. "Jumpin'" Johnny Green,
23. Michigan State's First Final Four,
24. Take a Photo with the Sparty Statue,
25. The Great 1965 Team,
26. Connor Cook and the 2015 Cotton Bowl,
27. The Streak,
28. Munn's First Team All-Americans,
29. Captain Kirk,
30. John Hannah: The Leonidas of Michigan State,
31. The 2001 Final Four,
32. Land of Opportunity,
33. The Magical New Era,
34. Reasons to Hate Michigan,
35. Lorenzo White,
36. 1965 and 1966 All-Americans,
37. The Origin of the Spartans Nickname,
38. Levi Jackson's Run Against Ohio State,
39. 2015 — 16: The Rangers and Denzel Valentine,
40. Jud Heathcote,
41. 1957: What Might Have Been,
42. George Perles,
43. Greg Kelser,
44. Party with Sparty,
45. Izzo's First Great Team,
46. Five Fantastic QBs,
47. Forddy's Greatest Hits,
48. Paul Bunyan Trophy,
49. 1999: A Good Year,
50. The 2000 Citrus Bowl,
51. The Whiny, 1990 Michigan Game,
52. The Ups and Downs of Nick Saban,
53. Kirk Gibson,
54. Sing the Fight Song,
55. Double 11s,
56. The 2012 Outback Bowl,
57. John Macklin and the Early Years,
58. Rocket,
59. Steve Smith,
60. Daugherty's First Team All-Americans,
61. Spartan Bob and the Clock Game,
62. Scott Skiles,
63. Sweet 16 Clock Issues: Part I,
64. Sweet 16 Clock Issues: Part II,
65. Mark Dantonio vs. Mike Hart,
66. The First Big Ten Season,
67. Four Stud Running Backs of the Modern Era,
68. Attend the Drum Off and the Walk,
69. The 2005 Final Four,
70. Darryl Rogers' High-Scoring 1978 Team,
71. The Flintstones,
72. Charlie Bachman,
73. Brad Van Pelt,
74. The 1938 Orange Bowl,
75. The Megaphone Trophy,
76. The 2010 Final Four,
77. Spartan Green,
78. Five Fabulous Receivers,
79. 2015 Final Four,
80. Two Towering Athletic Directors,
81. Visit Spartan Stadium,
82. Visit Jenison Field House and the Breslin Center,
83. Eight Great Defensive Players of the Modern Era,
84. The John Benington and Gus Ganakas Years,
85. Sleepy Crowley,
86. Pete Newell and the Early Years,
87. The Old Brass Spittoon,
88. 1998 and the Ohio State Upset,
89. Biggie Munn's Early Years,
90. All-Americans from the Early 1960s,
91. Rebuilding Behind Marcus Taylor, Drew Neitzel, and Draymond Green,
92. John L. Smith's Wild Ride,
93. Visit the Campus Plaques and Murals,
94. All-Americans from the Late 1960s and Early 1970s,
95. Marvel at Zeke the Wonder Dog,
96. Fire and Ice,
97. Camp Out for Seats in the Izzone,
98. Spartans Famous Family Trees,
99. Have a Drink at Coral Gables,
100. The World According to Duffy,
Sources,